RSL started the game knowing who the better team was and didn’t seem to think they needed to work very hard to prove it. To be fair, for much of the first half it looked like they were right. From the starting kick off until an Olave goal at the 37th minute, the only highlight of real note was Ian Joy walking off the pitch in frustration, refusing a water bottle and then throwing his jersey to the ground on his way to the locker room. (Hopefully we will find out he is okay soon.)
There were a few moments that looked promising. Mathis managed a nice little move inside of 10 yards to put himself in a very dangerous spot, but his attempt at nutmegging the keeper went off a leg and out for a corner. Yura also managed to hit a ball toward goal that had great chances of going in but clanked off the far post instead. But these plays and several others like them all seemed to come without much effort. It seemed that the players knew that this was a preseason game that was being played more for the fans than to try and work out any issues before the regular season kicks off.
All that seemed to change part-way into the second half as the Aztex managed to pull one back on some poor defense by RSL. One thing we should rarely get scored on with physical players such as Olave and Beckerman in the game is a corner kick, but someone must have missed their mark because the header by Aztex defender Kieron Bernard looked pretty easy.
With the game now tied, the Aztex started to get into it and had a couple of moments where they looked like the more dominant team. They controlled the ball and made hard tackles to get it back any time they lost it. Unfortunately for them it didn’t last. A hard tackle on Beckerman seemed to wake him up, and as the rest of the team gathered around and an Aztex player was awarded a yellow card, you could feel the atmosphere changing.
RSL was able to pull back ahead with a beautiful lob toward the back post by Will Johnson that worked beautifully for Yura. With a quick nod he was able to head the ball past the Aztex keeper. RSL continued to attack after that, and if they can finish all their games like this they will be in great shape come October. The Aztex gave all they had for the last 10 minutes of the game yet it looked like RSL was the team trying to even up the score. Dominating possession and keeping the ball on the Aztex half of the pitch, RSL were the ones who kept creating dangerous chances for themselves.
The Aztex last chance came on a poor cross in the 1st minute of stoppage time that Rimando was able to scoop up and throw back out quickly. The ball ending up ahead of a streaking Javier Morales, and Morales, of course, did the rest: taking the ball to about 18 yards out and chipping the keeper to give RSL a 2 goal lead in the closing seconds of the game.
With a 3-1 score, the ref blew the whistle to end the game as the Aztex kicked off. The RSL players all got up and cheered the crowd with my Man of the Match Beckerman cheering the longest. He remains an emotional leader and the heart of the team on the pitch.
